I can only sorta agree with Nonis on the scheduling problems. Familiarity breeds contempt, but then again, this is not baseball and you shouldn't play the same team 3 times in a row (ie, Canucks and Oilers last year)
Gee, if you don't want a player to leave via free agency, don't waste 1.9 million in cap space on third line players.
Burke >> Nonis
Sports Illustrated picked Anaheim over Buffalo in the finals. Looking really smart right now.
- Pride has much much much better production values. Case in point (just watch the introduction of the first 2 videos. At the very least, watch the third video.)
Chuck Liddell vs Renato Sobral 2 UFC 62 - August 2006
- Pride has a deeper roster overall. The UFC light heavyweight division is paper thin and the heavyweight division is a joke.
- Apart from the occasional free agent signing, the UFC is only interested in finding english speaking fighters, usually through their reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter”. Pride gets the absolute best fighters regardless of their nationality.
- Pride has better pay per view cards (for the reasons above and the Pride match makers do a much better job)
- UFC has three 5 minute rounds in a regular bout and five rounds in a championship bout. Pride uses a 10-minute first round with 5-minute second and third rounds. I like the ten minute first round because it gives the fighters more time to work towards a submission or a stoppage. Hence fighters are less likely to be saved by the end of the round.
- UFC uses a 10 point must system for judging fights. The 10 point must system (round winner - 10 points, other guy - 9 points) doesn’t really work for mixed martial arts because knockdowns aren’t tallied in mma unlike boxing. The decision to give a fighter a 10-8 round would also just add more subjectivity to the judging.
Not to mention, it’s horribly lame to have fighter A win via decision because he was slightly busier in rounds 1 and 2 even though fighter B really hurt fighter A in round 3.
Pride scores fights in their entirety, so the above problems don’t really exist.
- You can elbow to head in the UFC. Elbows to the head just lead to cuts that cause lame early stoppages. No elbows to the head in Pride.
- You can’t kick or knee the head of a grounded opponent in the UFC unlike in Pride. Hence, there are fewer stalls and stalemates when one fighter is standing and the other is not. Stomps and soccer kicks also lead to more wild action.
Sprawl
A great example is when a fighter sprawls to stop a takedown attempt. In the UFC, this usually produces a boring stalemate. In Pride, the fighter on the bottom would get kneed to the head, therefore fighters would be more worried of getting their takedown attempt stuffed. This would lead to the fighters staying on their feet for a longer time.
- In Pride, “If fighters commit the following actions, they shall be given a yellow card by officials: Stalling or failure to initiate any offensive attack, making no attempt to finalize the match or damage the opponent, and holding the opponent's body with the arms and legs to produce a stalemate. A yellow card results in a 10% deduction/fine of the fighter's fight purse. A major difference in the penalty card system between PRIDE FC and BUSHIDO is that in PRIDE FC a total of three yellow cards results in a red card (disqualification), while in BUSHIDO yellow cards can be given out in an unlimited number without disqualification”.
No one likes to potentially lose 30% of their paycheck, so fights tend to be more action packed. The refs definitely aren’t shy about handing the cards out.
- Pride takes place in a ring. UFC takes place in a caged octagon. Personally, I think the octagon causes more stalling than the ring. Many times, one fighter is pinning the other fighter into the fence in the clinch or ground for extended periods of time. And despite being against the rules, fighters can unintentionally/intentionally grab the fence for an unfair advantage. In Pride, it’s much more difficult to pin or grab the ring ropes. Occasionally, on the ground, fighters near the end of the ring are restarted in the middle of the ring, but the stop in action isn’t as bad as it seems.
- Due to the Nevada State Athletic Commission rules, in the UFC you aren’t allowed to wear a Gi unlike Pride. Taking away the Gi just reduces the arsenal of some fighters.
- UFC undercard fighters are paid shit (ie. $2000/fight). This leads to less fighters getting into mixed martial arts.
- Pride has cooler announcers. The crazy american lady who screeches during the fighter's entrance and you gotta love how the Japanese announcer really enunciates the names.
(Feb 2006) Our olympic womens hockey team could beat our olympic mens hockey.
(Note: The biggest female player was 6'0 and 176lbs.)
(Yesterday) Bruce Lee could beat Chuck Liddell in a fight
(Note: Bruce was 135lbs and Chuck is like 205-225lbs)
Size matters
There's a reason why Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Pound 4 pound the best boxer in the world) would get killed by a journeyman heavyweight boxer (147lbs versus 190+ lbs)
Ok. You might not have bothered to watch to the other videos, but make sure to watch this one. Why? Because this commercial might be my all time favorite.
Not if one of those other guys jumped on the ball. Lol. He does have a valid, if not twisted, point.
Today, I went to see loudQUIETloud at the international film festival. It was alright if you're a Pixies fan. But if you know nothing about the Pixies, I wouldn't recommend this film because there was minimal background info and band history. However, there were many funny bits that anyone can appreciate and there's some great concert footage. There was one really funny bit involving a fan, Kim and this book.
On a side note, I arrived 15 mins late and it was a packed thearte. When I was walking down a row, I accidentally knocked some girl's drink over (I think it was on the floor as opposed to in the cup holder). Kinda of an awkward initial moment. Thankfully, she and some other dude left before the credits finished rolling.
Saw Elite Fighting - The Ultimate Decision about a week ago at the PNE Agrodome. At $45 (for the cheapest seats), it was a great deal considering there were 14 fights. To sweeten the deal, there were several empty seats, so me and my friend upgraded to better seats. The crappy bits:
1) The tickets said the event started at 5:30. Doors didn't open till 6:30. Fights didn't start until 7:30. Man this wait was so boring.
2) For post fight interviews, they didn't turn the house mic on, so we couldn't hear anything. Why? Beats me.
3) Ridiculous number of eye pokes that forced stops in the action. The refs were also a little hasty in restarting action when the fighters got close to the ropes.
4) An intermission break after 7 breaks which only dragged out the event evenmore. In the end, I was there from 5:30 to 12:30.
Aside from the boring first 2 fights and one quick stoppage due to cut, the fights in general were good. There were also a number of scantily clad models working the show, which is always good. Supposedly there will be another event in December. Check that shit out.
I can see why only Kyle joined my fantasy hockey league. You're all afraid of me whupping your ass.
Curses. I now realize that I'm stuck with Bryzgalov in net because my cap is tied up in the rest of my team and I have to use one of my trades to dump the injured Ozolinsh. Hence I'll only have 1 trade left for this week and I'll be unable to make the trades to free up funds for a new goalie. The only reason I picked up Bryzgalov was on the assumption that he'd be the new starter in Anahiem. B'oh.
I should start doing Muay Thai if I'm going to continue doing exaggerated knees and elbows at my mom (part of my counter-psychological warfare). At this rate, I'm bound to accidently knock my mom down a stairwell or possibly headfirst into a wall/cupboard/flat vertical object.
The city is going through a retail boom, as big box stores are being built in the city's west end. This includes the new Home Depot, a larger Canadian Tire, and two other business, assumed to be Costco's and a Silver City theatre. Ikea was also saposed to build in Timmins, but the idea has yet to begin. Also, a new Shoppers Drug Mart, Hyundai Motors, and a new stand alone A+W are in the works. It is of note that there are few residents of Timmins that know how to spell "supposed." This below-average mental capacity is typical of Northerners.
aw shucks, as of october 5, 2006, someone fixed the entry
